The overall purpose of the Microarray Core is to provide support for specific projects within the center utilizing microarrays which include Project 2 (PI: Dr. Mary Fabry) who will be studying gene expression changes in mice on an arginine supplemented diet, Project 3 (PI: Dr. Dhananjay Kaul) who will be studying gene expression changes in adhesion processes, and Project 4 (PI: Dr. Ronald Nagel) who will be studying pleiotropic and epistatic genes involved in sickle cell vaso-occlusion in the rat mesocecum model and in transgenic mice. The Microarray Core will prepare samples for microarra experiments, perform the microarray hybridizations, and analyze the data using computer software that compares relative changes in gene expression. The printing and scanning of the microarrays are performed at the AECOM Microarray Facility. To define polymorphisms in the human population, the core will perform SNP analysis on control and sickle cell patient DNA. The core is also responsible for any validation of microarray results including semi-quantitative PCR or real time PCR methods development. The core will also be involved in any methods development necessary to labe smaller quantities of RNA for microarray experiments or to hybridize custom arrays.